Reporter and “Fiasco” author Tom Ricks: “I asked one officer why are you talking to me about these things, and he looked down at his hands, and he said because I have the blood of American troops on my hands. And I said what do you mean? And he said because when I said to Rumsfeld we need that division, and Rumsfeld said no, I gave up. I compromised. And he said U.S. troops died because of that. And he said that’s why I’m talking to you. … And he was practically crying as he spoke to me about this.”

In early 2001, Vice President Cheney brought together an energy task force made up of “utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries,” and “incorporated their recommendations, often word for word,” into the administration’s energy plan.

One year ago today, President Bush signed that plan into law. It lavished $14.5 billion in tax breaks on energy firms, nearly 60 percent of which went to “oil, natural gas, coal, electric utilities and nuclear power.”

As recently as April, Bush claimed the energy bill would help take “pressure off the price of gasoline at the pump.” It hasn’t worked out that way, as the chart below shows. (Click here to see the full image, courtesy of the minority staff on the House Government Reform Committee.)

Meanwhile, President Bush’s 2007 budget proposed funding “less than half of what the recent energy bill promised for renewable energy and energy efficiency — the two most readily available opportunities to break our addiction to oil.”

Visitors to the mountain “hope to watch a rock the size of two Empire State Buildings collapse onto the canyon floor nearly 700 feet below, as retreating glacier ice robs a cliff face on the eastern edge of the Eiger Mountain of its main support.”

It’s getting difficult to distinguish actual opposition to global warming science and parody. FYI, the following is not a joke.

National Review editor James S. Robbins shares his thoughts today:

Personally, I don’t know what all the shouting is about. Global warming is great. Granted, maybe it isn’t really happening, and if it is there are strong reasons to doubt that humans have anything to do with it. But if the world is warming, I say “bravo.”

What are the benefits? According to Robbins, “vast regions” of Canada would become “comfortably habitable,” “more land will be available for cultivation,” and there will be a “land boom up the coastlines as people rushed on up for beachfront property.”

Robbins brushes off all negative consequences. He acknowledges that rising sea levels could create “some dislocations” but says that a worldwide sea level rise of as much as 20 feet could be taken care of with “some form of sea wall.” The image above illustrates the impact a 20 foot sea level rise on Florida. Apparently, Robbins plans on building a sea wall around the entire state.

Robbins doesn’t even mention increased hurricane intensity, drought, wildfires and the other severe impacts of global warming — much less explain, as he claims, how these natural phenomena can “be overcome.”

Robbins concludes, when “you are enjoying the surfing at your beach house in upper Newfoundland, you won’t care what caused global warming, you’ll just thank goodness it happened.” In so doing, he illustrates an important point. Intentional or not, his arguments are a joke.

Time magazine’s Mike Allen reports that Tom DeLay is “leaning” towards “stepping aside and supporting a write-in candidate for his old seat.”

Actor and pop singer Lindsay Lohan wants to go to Iraq, People magazine reports. “I’m not afraid of going,” she says. “My security guard is going to take me to a gun range when I get back to L.A., and I’m going to start taking shooting lessons.” Lock and load.

Yesterday on Fox News, Bill O’Reilly claimed that he tried to do some “fair and balanced” research, but couldn’t find anyone on the right who calls liberals “haters” — bigots, racists, anti-Semites, or homophobes. (He ignored Michelle Malkin when she admitted that in her columns, she takes “liberal bigots to task for their hypocrisy.”) Watch it:

We did some quick research for O’Reilly and found examples:

Welcome to the 21st century librarian: book-smart, reality-stupid, Bush-deranged bigots. [Malkin, 6/21/06]

And yet, I keep reading — and in fact, I think I read in, I believe, I heard you say that there was some crossover vote in this race, something like 20 percent of white voters voted for [New Orleans mayor Ray] Nagin, who is obviously a full-blown racist. [Tucker Carlson, 5/22/06]

[Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid knows a little something about being racist. [Rich Galen, 6/22/06]

O’Reilly also dismissed calling liberals “insane,” “harpies,” “witches” or “retarded” as “just the usual partisan rhetoric.”

Full transcript below: Read more

of Bush’s handling of every major national security issue facing the country, a new Washington Post/ABC poll shows. 50 percent disapprove of his handling of terrorism (vs. 47 percent approval), 50 percent disapprove of his handling of the Israel-Lebanon situation (vs. 43 percent approval), and 62 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq (vs. 36 percent approval).